What Should You Look for When Choosing Best Portable DVD Player

The modern world runs on smartphones and other mobile devices. Portability, which was once a luxury, has now become a necessity. Consumers want almost every item they purchase to be portable. If a product is less mobile or cannot be lugged around, you can expect a drop in its value among consumers. The best portable DVD players were once stationary and meant to be used in homes for watching movies with the family.

The modern world runs on smartphones and other mobile devices. Portability, which was once a luxury, has now become a necessity. Consumers want almost every item they purchase to be portable. If a product is less mobile or cannot be lugged around, you can expect a drop in its value among consumers. DVD players were once stationary and meant to be used in homes for watching movies with the family. The modern best portable DVD player now comes in portable options for people who are constantly on the move such as frequent fliers or jet-setters. The following are the things you must consider.

Consider Your Usage Pattern

A portable DVD player can be used for multiple reasons. Some may use the system as a car player, and others may prefer it to be a carry-along machine. If you’d like to carry the player, you have both laptop- and tablet-style variants. For vehicle use, there are variants specifically designed.

Car-based portable players could come with two screens – one fixed at the dash and another elsewhere in the car. Some DVD players for cars also have mounting straps. Such strap mechanism is ideal for people who want a portable player but still want the choice to fix it inside the car semi-permanently.

Consider a lighter, smaller player if you’re a frequent flyer. When on the move, you are likely to be fiddling with a lot of stuff such as tying your shoelaces, emptying pockets, eating food, etc. And during this time, you would certainly not want your portable player to be another chore.

If you like watching a lot of soap operas, then consider buying a player that could play back video CDs. In case you frequently download stuff, the player you buy must be able to play AVI or DIVX files, provided the video files are not in the MKV format. Blu-ray players are also an option if you’re into watching ultra-high definition quality videos.

Design

A portable DVD player primarily comes in two basic designs: laptop-style (as aforementioned) and as tablets. The laptop-type is a fold-up design and is perfect when there are more than one people consuming content. This fold-up type also tends to have a bigger screen. Being able to stand on its own means you can place it on a table or similar pedestal and not hold it throughout. These tablets are a bit heavy and not as movement-friendly as tablet-style DVD players.

A tablet-style DVD player is smaller and lighter than the folding variant. These are easy to mount – for instance, the back of a car seat. If not affixed, you’ll have to hold it throughout when watching content. Besides the logistics and physical dimensions, both the variants are equally good at playing back videos and a range of other content.

Battery Life

To perform all these functions and more for long, you’ll require a DVD player with solid battery life. Constantly running out of power is something that can mar your entire media consumption experience. Generally, the device should have at least 3.5 hours of battery life. This duration should be good enough to watch a couple of full-length movies and a few other videos.

The budget-range players don’t offer continuous video playback up to 4 hours or more. They, on an average, last for a couple of hours before requiring a charge again. Therefore, know beforehand the DVD player’s battery performance.

Connectivity

At times, you’ll want to make maximum use of your portable DVD player even when at home. In other words, some players also connect to your television. This is a feature not many would mind skipping, but if you aren’t among them, ensure the player you buy has audio-video connectors for plugging into any regular television. Some players even come with an HDMI output for HDTV compatibility. All portable players come with an audio jack. But some DVD players have an extra or two so that two or three people can plug in at the same time.

Costs

Portable DVD players fall in different price categories. So if you’re on a budget or in the mood to splurge big, you’ll have some option or the other. The ones with the larger screens and multiple features would cost higher. But if you’d like to have something solid and do not mind skipping the extras, $200 can fetch you, good-quality players. You may have done a bit of looking around, though.

Conclusion

Remember, there are portable DVD players offered by several reputed manufacturers. However, it’s hard to zero in on a specific DVD player and call it the best. This is because none is perfect or ticks all the right boxes. Also, what may work for one consumer may not necessarily attract another buyer. The best portable DVD player is one that suits your need and usage pattern. Therefore, purchase sensibly and don’t fall for the hype. As far as brands go, we’d not like to recommend or endorse a particular brand, but with companies such as Panasonic, Coby, Philips, Sylvania, Sony, and a few others, you are in safe hands.